Field noteEdge compute & AI
Observing in the Arctic: a reference design
An Arctic observing station has to measure a fast-changing region with no grid, no fibre and months without sun. This reference design shows how one station can do that, budget every watt and keep its record through every outage1.
An Arctic station drawn on flat snow: a solar and battery microgrid, a flat-panel low-orbit satellite terminal, an automatic weather station, a geodetic GNSS monument and an edge node in the middle, joined by cables.
Key points
- The Arctic is warming faster than the globe, and its record is thin, so a station that keeps a long, consistent record matters.
- Each instrument is sited for what it must represent, and the reasons are recorded with the data.
- Power is the hard limit: the station budgets every watt and sheds load in a planned order.
- The station keeps measuring and storing when its satellite link is lost, and replays the record in order when it returns.
What an Arctic station needs to see
An Arctic observing station watches a region that is changing faster than the planet as a whole. Between 1971 and 2019 the annual mean surface temperature of the Arctic rose three times as fast as the global average1.
The same assessment notes that over the Arctic Ocean the record relies on interpolation because observations are sparse1. Every station that keeps a long, consistent record adds to a picture that is still thin.
This design measures three things. The weather comes first: temperature, wind, pressure, humidity and radiation. The international guide to instruments and methods of observation also gives a full volume to the cryosphere, with chapters on snow, glaciers and permafrost2.
The third is the ground itself. A geodetic receiver on a stable monument measures how the ground and ice move, and it gives the station its time. Annual reviews of the Arctic track the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and tundra against historical records, and stress that sustained observation remains essential3.
Siting instruments on snow and ice
On open snow, small things change what a sensor reads. Huts, fuel drums and drifts bend the wind and shade the snow, and a generator warms the air around it. The weather mast therefore stands upwind of the buildings and the microgrid, clear of anything that drifts.
The network that coordinates cryosphere stations asks that a station be placed so that its measurements represent the surrounding region, and that this representativeness be clearly described4. This design records the reason for each position alongside the data, so a reader years later knows what the station could and could not see.
The same Arctic station seen closer, with the weather station set apart from the other equipment, the GNSS monument on open ground and the satellite terminal clear of both.
The geodetic monument needs a stable footing and an open sky. Guidelines for continuously operating reference stations prefer drilled and braced tripod or pillar monuments fixed to bedrock, and a sky free of obstructions above 10 degrees of elevation5.
The satellite terminal also needs open sky, so it sits apart from the mast and the monument. It is ballasted rather than anchored, so the station can move it as the snow builds up around it.
From sensor to decision
The instruments are cabled to an edge node at the centre of the station. Cables avoid radio links across the site, and the edge node is close enough to every instrument that a failed sensor can be found and replaced in one visit.
The edge node is the station's memory and judgement. It stamps each value with the station clock, checks it, stores it and decides what crosses the satellite link and when. Raw geodetic data is kept in the open exchange format for satellite navigation data, and new reference stations are asked to use its recent versions5.
A systems diagram in four tiers: instruments at the bottom, the station with its clock, microgrid controller and edge node above them, then the satellite backhaul. Users sit at the top: remote operators, the crew and community on site, and data centres.
The backhaul is a low-orbit satellite link. Mobile network standards now describe satellite access as one of the networks a system can move between, and Release 17 introduced normative requirements for these non-terrestrial networks6.
Beyond the station, the data feeds operators, researchers and weather services. Cryosphere stations are asked to make data freely available, whenever possible in near real time, and to keep their metadata current4. The global meteorological exchange is moving to open web standards and publish and subscribe, which a station like this can join directly7.
Power is the hard constraint
Far from any grid, every watt is generated on site. Guidance for remote reference stations notes that solar performance depends on latitude and local climate, and that a solar powered site needs a battery system5.
In the Arctic the sun is the problem. In summer it never sets and the array produces more than the station needs. In the polar night it does not rise, and the station lives on its battery and a generator.
An interactive power calculator. Set the battery size, the station load, the solar array and the peak sun hours; it shows the autonomy without sun, the daily energy balance and the days until the battery is empty.
This design treats the load as a budget, not a constant. The same guidance describes power distribution units that can switch less critical equipment off and back on, and allow an operator to control power remotely5. Here the edge node sheds load in a planned order: measurements and the clock last, heavy processing and bulk uploads first.
The simulator shows the trade. Set the peak sun hours to zero for the polar night and see how long the battery carries the load, then add sun and see when the array covers it.
When the links fail
A remote station will lose its link, and often when the weather is worst. Guidance for reference stations recommends a secondary independent communication path at remote sites where a site visit costs more than the link5.
The same guidance notes that bandwidth must allow for retrieving data stored during a communications outage5. This design keeps every value on the edge node while the link is down and replays the record in order, with its original timestamps, once the link returns.
The same four tiers with the link between the satellite terminal and the satellites cut. The instruments, clock, microgrid and edge node keep working, and the crew and community on site still see the data.
People matter as much as links. During the pandemic, Arctic monitoring was disrupted and long-term records were expected to show gaps, while projects co-developed with northern and Indigenous communities were often able to continue1. A station that local people can tend keeps its record.
When an instrument fails rather than the link, its absence is recorded as a gap with a reason, never filled in silently, so users can see which part of the picture is missing.
Questions and answers
Is this a station that exists?
No. It is a reference design that shows how the parts fit together. A real station is designed from its own survey, its own power budget and the people who will tend it.
Why not send all the data live?
Satellite capacity and power are both limited. The edge node sends what users need now and holds the full record, which it hands on when capacity allows.
Glossary
- Cryosphere
- The parts of the Earth's surface where water is frozen: snow, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets and permafrost.
- Geodetic monument
- A rigid mount, fixed to stable ground, that holds a satellite navigation antenna so that its position can be tracked over years.
- Load shedding
- Switching off less important equipment in a planned order to keep the essential equipment running on limited power.
References
- Peer-reviewed or intergovernmental: Arctic Climate Change Update 2021: Key Trends and Impacts. Summary for Policy-makers. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). . amap.no (accessed )
- Standard or official statistic: Guide to Instruments and Methods of Observation (WMO-No. 8). World Meteorological Organization. community.wmo.int (accessed )
- Government or regulator: Arctic Report Card. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. arctic.noaa.gov (accessed )
- Peer-reviewed or intergovernmental: CryoNet Station and Cluster Requirements. Global Cryosphere Watch, World Meteorological Organization. globalcryospherewatch.org (accessed )
- Consortium or technical document: Guidelines for Continuously Operating Reference Stations in the IGS, version 1.1. International GNSS Service. . files.igs.org (accessed )
- Standard or official statistic: Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) overview. 3GPP. 3gpp.org (accessed )
- Standard or official statistic: WMO Information System (WIS). World Meteorological Organization. community.wmo.int (accessed )
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